4 Steps To Managing Your Social Media Presence

Most employers will check your social media profiles while going through the recruiting process. Therefore, it is crucial to have a well-established online presence. Follow these steps to assist you:

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles: I recommend that you either set your profile settings to private where your profile will not appear on search engines or perform a profile clean up. Go through all your pictures, posts and tweets, deleting anything that you do not want your employer to see. It might even be a good idea to leave everything behind and start new Facebook, Twitter or Instagram profile.

LinkedIn Profile: I cannot stress enough the importance of having a well-established LinkedIn profile. You MUST have a LinkedIn profile; it is part of being a professional and will increase your chances of being hired. Take the time to set up a detailed profile by looking at your peers, who already have their profiles on LinkedIn. Do this at least 2 -3 months in advance of recruiting in order for the search engines to start showing your profile.

LinkedIn Profile Picture: You must upload a professional headshot as the profile picture. Using your graduate pictures is fine. However, avoid using selfies or group pictures.

Google search: You might have created a profile, posted a picture somewhere that you forgot about over time. Therefore, perform a Google search on your name to make sure there are no surprises popping up.

Bonus: Email & Voicemail: Ensure that you have a professional email (I recommend using Gmail) address. As a rule of thumb, using some sort of a combination of your first and last name is acceptable. You should also have a personalized greeting on your voicemail in case you get a call from your potential employer.

Have any other questions about social media? Leave a comment below or email me.

Hey Rq95, I would recommend you try to follow the links showing the picture and figure out the source that the picture is coming from. Then contact that website to have it removed. Most website owners are pretty good with this.

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Disclaimer

I do not own any of the pictures on this website. They are obtained from open source profiles via Pinterest and Flicker. If I have mistakenly used a picture created by you then please email me to have it removed.